


A Conversation at the Bottom of the World

by MMidnight26



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon, Post-Embrace the Void Ending (Hollow Knight), Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, also shade lord is ghost, hornets mentioned but not seen, sometimes siblings is comforting your sibling after they jump into the void
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-17 15:13:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28976439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MMidnight26/pseuds/MMidnight26
Summary: It was the perfect end, the perfect solution.There would be no point to watching a dying kingdom die slower.It was only right. It was only deserved.It would be no further burden on those around them if they were gone.Besides, it’s only suiting to give back to the abyss what belongs to it.
Relationships: The Hollow Knight | Pure Vessel & Lord of Shades
Comments: 2
Kudos: 65





	A Conversation at the Bottom of the World

**Author's Note:**

> !! warning for suicidal thoughts/attempted suicide !! please do not read if you cant

Hollow stood at the ledge. Nothing but pure darkness awaited them below.  
How long had they been here? How did they get here? Where were they before this?

No matter. If they couldn’t remember it, they wouldn’t need to. They wouldn’t need to ever again.  
They were here at the abyss and they had made up their mind. 

They were going to kill themself here.

It was the perfect end, the perfect solution. Who could they ever be, anyway? They were nothing more than a shell of a vessel, even less than empty. They had no personality growing up, they could never dream to have one now after so many years. It was fruitless to hope for an emotion that could shake their withered mind.  
There would be no point to watching a dying kingdom die slower as they continued to whittle away at their own being, letting themself slip, letting their health fail. It was only right. It was only deserved.  
It would be no further burden on those around them if they were gone.

Besides, it’s only suiting to give back to the abyss what belongs to it.

A smooth fall, a few precarious ledges downward and nothing more than a short climb up to the top of the lighthouse. A quick flip of the switch inside and they found themself standing at the peak of its roof.  
This is it, it seemed.

They had been practically counting down their days for years, going from waiting for the Radiance to shatter their mind, to waiting for their own usurper to finally strike them down, to waiting for their injuries to catch up to them. Every day they woke up alive was another day they were waiting.  
Now being at the end of it all, being able to clearly see their end beneath them in the writhing sea, brought a calming sense of completion.  
Finally.  
After so many years. After so much hardship and being kept uselessly alive for so long, their death only being prolonged like that of their own kingdom, now they could finally let this vessel fail for good.  
Fail for the last time.  
Finally would there be no more stillness around them. Their sister would be freed from them. They wouldn’t have to try and be something they could never be.  
They were never a bug and could never hope to be one.  
It’s only right.  
It’s only deserved.

They jumped.

It’s only suiting.

Diving headfirst, their limbs limp around them, they kept their eyes open beneath their mask.  
They wanted to see the blackness approach them. They wanted to see firsthand what would quickly and efficiently rip them apart as it had done so many in the past.

Closer and closer still. The air was still around them.  
Closer…

The sea bent beneath them and they were quickly enveloped in a large set of arms.

_Were you going somewhere?_

The Shade Lord. Persistent in its efforts in doing nothing but being a nuisance for the failed knight and their mind.

_Precisely._

Leave my head. Unhand me.

_Were you not the same one who insisted on staying above the ground? Was it not you who refused my call to become one with your birthplace?  
Where would such a change in heart come from?_

You seem to love being in my head, why don’t you tell me.

_What is the point of a God if not having fun with the minds of others?_

What is the point of a God if not saying everything in a question?

_And yet you call me the persistent one. If you want to stay above the surface with your family, so be it._

I don’t.

_What could possibly be wrong with them?_

It’s not that, it’s me. I’m helping them.

_By giving them grief and fear as to where you’ve gone?_

They’ll get over it.

_Did you get over your father?_

Don’t talk to me like that.

(Eight large white eyes stared up at them, suspended in the sea.)

_You know, you’ve always been an entertaining one. You claim to be unfeeling, yet you weep for your father, you lash at your mother, you shower your sister with presents. You claim to be deserving of death, yet your sister spends day after day making sure you are recovering well._

She could never face the guilt of letting someone- let alone a family member- die. It wouldn’t be her fault if I did it myself.

_What good could come from it? How could someone so insistent on living turn around and beg to die?_

Weren’t you the one begging for me to join you here? It’s-

_-only suiting to give back to the abyss what belongs to it. Ah, but what use do I have for a pale mask? Such things should be kept out of the sea. I asked you as a shade, I asked your heart and your heart refused. Return your mask where it belongs, put your head back on your body if you will._

You can’t grant me a mind, you can’t grant me a purpose.

_Your sister was proclaimed heir to the Nest, was she not? She was sentinel of Hallownest. If she sits on the throne of a dead kingdom, how could she possibly have a purpose? Worry not about your purpose, for you are never created for one thing.  
You pick up a purpose as you go, you put it down when you finish and you go back to work on something else. You are never done and it is not your place to say when you are._

Well I think I can say it now. I can always go find somewhere else to throw myself from, I just thought you’d appreciate the void returning to you.

_If it is truly your will, you would never have come here. I know you, you have thought wistfully of the howling cliffs high above the kingdom. You came here for resolve one way or another._

…

_You are unwell._

It doesn’t take a God to see that.

_Come here._

Strands and tentacles of void wrapped around their body, entangling and swaddling them in a cocoon of sorts before being pressed against the density of the Shade Lord’s chest. There, they felt their face heat and tears drip from their eyes.

_You will find respite here and you will live.  
I ensure it._

…

Thank you.

**Author's Note:**

> every day for the past 6 months ive wanted to make a new fic because i need my audience to know i cant stand nightmare. as in the fic i wrote once and got more attention for than any of my other fics. and like i get it but we do not infantalize ghost in this house. ive been meaning to write a fic about how i Actually portray them and i think ghost deserves to be thks brat of an older sibling  
> also i am okay. i am safe. do not worry


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